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LIVE REVIEW: Melanie Martinez, The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA 9/3/2015

Lately I’ve been in major girl crush mode. With both Halsey’s ‘Badlands’ and Melanie Martinez’s ‘Cry Baby’ coming out in the last month, Zella Day killing it at Sinclair and Justine Bowe of Photocomfort breaking out of Boston, this month is pure girl power. This review though is about the insanely talented Melanie Martinez and the sold out show stopping performance she put on last Thursday night in Boston!

The crowd was packed in anticipation as her Boston opener Handsome Ghost took the stage. As the lights went low, the chant of ‘Melanie, Melanie, Melanie’ broke out in the crowd before she and her band came out. The stage was filled with lettered blocks and was a low key band set up of just two other band members on stage to make Melanie the third.

She opened the set with the title track off her new record, ‘Cry Baby’, yelling “Come on, Boston!” after the first chorus. I noticed during her set that her music really focuses on her insane vocal range. Her presence is hypnotizing. Her goofiness and youthfulness is seen through her unique dress and her stage décor. It’s just overall a great stage presence and presentation. She then went into ‘Dollhouse’ which was one of her first big singles and a personal favorite of mine. It was kind of surprising that she played it so early considering her new record is so new but the new album has been killing it with plenty of singles off of it. As her set progressed, I realized too that it was a very mellow crowd maybe even just as a respect thing for Melanie but it still seemed a little strange. Maybe something I’m not used too. It was something where they only reacted or spoke up if Melanie encouraged them to.

She then went into ‘Sippy Cup’ which is a good favorite of mine off the new record. Melanie was going straight from track to track with very minimal crowd interaction. That’s how it should be in my eyes and the crowd was totally alright with it. A set should be about the music, not about cracking jokes. Highlights within the next few tracks included ‘Training Wheels’ and ‘Pity Party’. For the latter track, she took a video on her phone of the crowd and herself singing the song. She ended her set with ‘Mad Hatter’ and left the stage quickly but once the chant of ‘Melanie, Melanie, Melanie’ returned, she came out and went ‘I’ll do one more okay’ to then break into ‘Cake’!

As you can see, Melanie had not one fault in her set. She was on right from the beginning and quickly made it clear that there is a new generation of lady rockers and they are blowing everyone out of the water. While she may have gotten her start on The Voice after being knocked out in one of the final rounds, she has far surpassed her competition on the show and has totally broke out of the reality show mold. Melanie has made a name for herself at the incredibly young age of twenty and only will go up from here.